Romans 3
3
1What good is it to be a Jew? What good is it to be circumcised? 2It is good in a lot of ways! First of all, God's messages were spoken to the Jews. 3It is true that some of them did not believe the message. But does this mean that God cannot be trusted, just because they did not have faith? 4#Ps 51.4 (LXX). No, indeed! God tells the truth, even if everyone else is a liar. The Scriptures say about God,
“Your words
will be proven true,
and in court
you will win your case.”
5If our evil deeds show how right God is, then what can we say? Is it wrong for God to become angry and punish us? What a foolish thing to ask. 6But the answer is, “No.” Otherwise, how could God judge the world? 7Since your lies bring great honor to God by showing how truthful he is, you may ask why God still says you are a sinner. 8You might as well say, “Let's do something evil, so that something good will come of it!” Some people even claim that we are saying this. But God is fair and will judge them as well.
No One Is Good
9What does all this mean? Does it mean that we Jews are better off#3.9 better off: Or “worse off.” than the Gentiles? No, it doesn't! Jews, as well as Gentiles, are ruled by sin, just as I have said. 10#Ps 14.1-3 (LXX); Ps 53.1-3 (LXX). The Scriptures tell us,
“No one is acceptable to God!
11Not one of them understands
or even searches for God.
12They have all turned away
and are worthless.
There isn't one person
who does right.
13 # Ps 5.9 (LXX);
Ps 140.3. Their words are like
an open pit,
and their tongues are good
only for telling lies.
Each word is as deadly
as the fangs of a snake,
14 # Ps 10.7 (LXX). and they say nothing
but bitter curses.
15 #
Is 59.7,8. These people quickly
become violent.
16Wherever they go,
they leave ruin
and destruction.
17They don't know how
to live in peace.
18 #
Ps 36.1. They don't even fear God.”
19We know that everything in the Law was written for those who are under its power. The Law says these things to stop anyone from making excuses and to let God show that the whole world is guilty. 20#Ps 143.2; Ga 2.16. God doesn't accept people simply because they obey the Law. No, indeed! All the Law does is to point out our sin.
God's Way of Accepting People
21Now we see how God does make us acceptable to him. The Law and the Prophets#3.21 The Law and the Prophets: The Jewish Scriptures, that is, the Old Testament. tell how we become acceptable, and it isn't by obeying the Law of Moses. 22#Ga 2.16. God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. 23All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. 24But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. 25-26#4 Macc 17.21. God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life's blood, so by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus.
27What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith. 28We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law. 29Does God belong only to the Jews? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is! 30#Dt 6.4; Ga 3.20. There is only one God, and he accepts Gentiles as well as Jews, simply because of their faith. 31Do we destroy the Law by our faith? Not at all! We make it even more powerful.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Romans 3
3
Romans 3
1¶ What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2Much in every way: first, certainly, that the oracles of God have been entrusted unto them.
3For what if some of them did not believe? Shall their unbelief have made the truth of God without effect?
4No, in no wise: for God is true, and every man a liar; as it is written, That thou might be justified in thy words and might overcome when thou dost judge.
5And if our iniquity commends the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Shall for this reason God be unjust who sends punishment? (I speak as a man.)
6No, in no wise: for then how shall God judge the world?
7For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why even so am I also judged as a sinner?
8And why not say (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? The condemnation of whom is just.
9What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin;
10as it is written, There is no one righteous, no, not one;
11there is no one that understands; there is no one that seeks after God.
12They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is no one that does good, no, not one.
13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips,
14whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;
15their feet are swift to shed blood;
16destruction and misery are in their ways,
17and the way of peace they have not known;
18there is no fear of God before their eyes.
19¶ Now we know that all that the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may submit themselves unto God.
20For by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21But now, without the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets:
22the righteousness, that is, of God by the faith of Jesus, the Christ, for all and upon all those that believe in him, for there is no difference;
23for all have sinned and are made destitute of the glory of God,
24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus, the Christ,
25whom God purposed for reconciliation through faith in his blood for the manifestation of his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past, by the patience of God,
26manifesting in this time his righteousness that he only be the just one and the justifier of him that is of the faith of Jesus.
27Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No, but by the law of faith.
28Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
29 Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
30seeing it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision by faith.
31Do we then make void the law through faith? No, in no wise; to the contrary, we establish the law.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International